FROM a Thanksgiving letter by Harry Crouch of the National Coalition for Men: I am not sure exactly how it works but the Department of Corrections unceremoniously dumps some released prisoners directly back into society. I spotted one last week late at night standing near our office building, about 50 or so feet away, bewildered, seemingly lost, in a pair of cheap sandals, wearing black knee length athletic shorts, no shirt, carrying a plastic bag with not much in it and no place in particular to go. It was chilly getting colder. He looked at me lost, wanted to ask me something… My arms were full of stuff; I wanted to give him a shirt or a jacket. I had to get rid of the stuff first. He said nothing. I said nothing. He turned, looked in a garbage can, and walked down C street toward where the woman lived on the corner across the street from the new $555 million dollar court house where $150,000 a year plus benefits judges will soon safely work. He was young, frightened, and alone in an inhospitable city.

IN THIS interview at True Restoration, Bishop Donald Sanborn, who endorsed Trump, looks at the election from a Catholic perspective, noting an uprising by working-class voters (non-working class is more like it) in rural and outlying America against the educated voters of the large urban blocs. Ironically, Trump is the quintessential New Yorker. If Trump fulfills major promises and does not compromise with the Republican establishment (Rudy Giuliani for Secretary of State? Yuck!), it may be a long time before the Democratic Party, with its commitment to globalism, appeals to this segment again. Bishop Sanborn comments on Trump's degrading, sexual talk about women and, while not dismissing it, says, regarding Trump's personal life, "Personal debauchery does not affect your ability to govern." Ideally, good morals and good governance go together. But oftentimes, debauched people seek power and make good rulers. Still, Trump sets an undeniably bad example in certain areas.

GIVEN the influence of American politics on Europe, will the victory of Donald Trump help propel Marine Le Pen to the French presidency? See excellent ongoing coverage of the upcoming May election at Galliawatch. A recent post looks at French reaction to the Trump election.  Tiberge quotes one commentator about the possibility of "Trumpify-ing" some of the candidates: No [French] candidate comes up to Trump's ankle. They lack the thing that gave him his success, the power to rise above the crowd. They depict Marine Le Pen as Donald Trump's sister, and vice-versa… it's completely false. She is engaged in a strategy of un-demonization, while Trump has always held his head high. He has never backed off and never submitted to political correctness. And then, Marine Le Pen is not new, she's a party. She has already run in elections, unlike Trump who does not come from the world of politics. This aspect also is lacking in France. We need a renewal in the French ruling class. Certain candidates try to act like Trump but take no risks. He endured numerous attacks, notably from the media. That would frighten away any French political leader.

HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE in Massachusetts has taken the American flag down from its campus flagpole in the wake of the election of Donald Trump. President Jonathan Lash wrote: “By removing the flag, the college will seek to focus our efforts on addressing racist, misogynistic, Islamophobic, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and behaviors.” That just about covers all the bases. By the way, it costs more than $65,000 per year to attend hate-free Hampshire, which is 60 percent female and 70 percent white.

LAST WEEK, the moon was reportedly the most remarkable it has been in appearance since 1948. They call it a “super moon” because of its close proximity to the earth. And it was super. Anyone — rich or poor — could look up and see the brilliant, luminous circle that had been not long before been what Emily Dickinson would call “a chin of gold” in the sky.

The Moon was but a Chin of Gold
A Night or two ago—
And now she turns Her perfect Face
Upon the World below—

Her Forehead is of Amplest Blonde—
Her Cheek—a Beryl hewn—
Her Eye unto the Summer Dew
The likest I have known—

Her Lips of Amber never part—
But what must be the smile
Upon Her Friend she could confer
Were such Her Silver Will—

How disappointing photos of the surface of the moon up close are compared to its appearance in the sea of night from here below. Even the view of a normal full or half moon is inspiring, but the surface of the moon, up close, is a relatively sterile, almost lifeless terrain. Interesting for its comparative impoverishment, amazing for all that it does not have. (more…)

TRUMP breaks his promise to pursue a host of serious allegations against Hillary Clinton.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN thought the turkey was preferable to the bald eagle as a national symbol, reports the website It's About Time. In Franklin's words: For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly. You may have seen him perched on some dead Tree near the River, where, too lazy to fish for himself, he watches the Labour of the Fishing Hawk; and when that diligent Bird has at length taken a Fish, and is bearing it to his Nest for the Support of his Mate and young Ones, the Bald Eagle pursues him and takes it from him. “With all this Injustice, he is never in good Case but like those among Men who live by Sharping & Robbing he is generally poor and often very lousy. Besides he is a rank Coward: The little King Bird not bigger than a Sparrow attacks him boldly and drives him out of the District. He is therefore by no means a proper Emblem for the brave and honest Cincinnati of America who have driven all the King birds from our Country . . . If he had been persuasive, we might have sports teams called the Turkeys, instead of the Eagles.  

  "POPE" Francis finds out Vatican employees have been reading the sedevacantist web site Novus Ordo Watch, which maintains he is not a true pope. Here's more on Francis "boiling with rage."

CNS News reports:

In a ceremony at the Church of Divine Mercy in Krakow, Poland on Saturday, the Catholic Bishops of Poland in the presence of President Andrzei Duda and many Catholic pilgrims, officially recognized Jesus Christ as the King of Poland and called upon Him to rule over their nation, its people and their political leaders. (more…)

MISOGYNISTS upset about the election are planning to march on Washington on January 21 to protest the presidency of Trump.

They’re steaming mad. Hillary promised to keep women down! She promised to help them kill their children. The woman-haters are mad as hell that she didn’t win.

Why are these misogynists crying anyway? They’re crying because they don’t have the power over women they thought they had. They’re crying because American women are stronger and more independent minded than they thought they were.

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IT IS not surprising that Mike Pence was booed and scolded at a performance Friday of the Broadway musical, Hamilton. The play is a celebration of the replacement of the European peoples of America, something Trump voters want to limit. Gregory Hood, writing last April at American Renaissance, called the extremely popular play a “subversive jab” at the Founders: (more…)

IN A three-part series, Fr. Franz Hunolt (1691-1746) wrote "On the Folly of Impure Desires of Sensual Pleasures:" You may talk to the impure man hundreds and thousands of times of the eternal joys of Heaven, he will not feel the least desire for them. He would willingly give them up, if he could satisfy all his wishes on earth. He cannot even imagine a joy which does not consist in impure love. He is inclined sometimes to envy the beast of the field, and to wish that he had neither reason nor freedom, that he might gratify his passions without shame, or the fear of eternal damnation. So that he has lost all pleasure in, and taste for everything; nay, his ruling passion itself gives him no content, because his desires increase more and more, and the greater they are, the harder it is to satisfy them.

  ANOTHER Wyeth painting.

SAM OOSTERHOFF ran on a pro-life platform.

Source

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FELLOWSHIP OF THE MINDS reports that bestialists, apparently emboldened in recent years, are now concerned.

ANOTHER Catholic blogger, Louie Verrecchio, has endorsed the position that Jorge Bergoglio is not a true pope: Even if others in Catholic media are afraid to say it aloud, at least thus far, I am not: Francis has judged himself a formal heretic. He is, therefore, an antipope.

LINDA N. writes:

Here are two rather different women in hats for your collection, both by Andrew Wyeth:

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